MUSIC REVIEW : An Opulent ‘Der Rosenkavalier’ in San Diego

In 27-year-old Civic Theatre, the opening of San Diego Opera’s Spring, 1992, season with Richard Strauss’ “Der Rosenkavalier” was marked by opulence, on stage and off.

Saturday night, in what looked like a full house, an audience of opera patrons mixed with delegates to the latest Opera America meeting--opera administrators, professionals and supporters from the United States and Canada--greeted the first of five productions in this January-May season. They were dressed to the teeth, and some of them--those who decorated their hair--even beyond that.

Much gold could be seen, both on the patrons and on the stage, where Allen Charles Klein’s (purposefully?) excessive decors , borrowed from Portland Opera, seemed to please the crowd with their size and colorfulness. For some observers, they merely dwarfed the singers.

Strauss’ wondrous music seemed mostly in competent hands, however. German conductor Heinz Fricke--who up to now has led only a single Wagner concert in this country (in San Diego)--proved himself an able leader and a friend to singers.

Fricke did not offer great depths of insight or endlessly detailed probing of this score--this was for the most part a performance that did not soar--but he let his forces move through it efficiently, without incident, and find its high points in a fluent manner. His pit orchestra seemed attentive; as usual, they will probably sound less scrappy as this series of performances continues.

The Viennese Wolfgang Weber, a San Diego Opera veteran of six previous productions, staged the opera with an eye for clarifying its plot convolutions without artifice. In this he was assisted helpfully by what seemed (this time around) unobtrusive English supertitles above the stage. Weber’s direction created pictures that both looked natural and retained dramatic sense; that is not as easy to do as one might think.

A cast of veterans and novices--more of the former and fewer of the latter, it seemed--sang beautifully, pleasantly or passably, by turns.

Strongest among them was Susanne Mentzer, an Octavian who warmed up slowly, but hit her stride by the closing minutes of Act I. Thereafter, she held her own as the title-character with growing command, text-identification and a sound of ravishing quality. As an actor of credibility, she completely held the stage.

Though in moments approaching inaudibility--in a search for strong dramatic emphasis?--Barbara Kilduff’s earnest and solid Sophie nevertheless impressed with its consistency of silvery sound and unself-conscious acting.

Ashley Putnam’s Marschallin turned out to be more stoic than characterized, more functional than inspired and more ordinary of tone than word-informed. Despite the soprano’s physical beauty and once-limpid, still-viable voice, what should have been the role of a lifetime--she sang it two years ago in Santa Fe--became just another disappointment. Perhaps she will grow into it, perhaps she won’t. . . .

A practiced, veteran Ochs, the German-born Arthur Korn gave a detailed, amusing performance as the lively Baron, showing vocal strengths at both ends of his wide range. As Faninal, Georg Tichy offered as much voice and similar histrionic detailing.

Among the supporting cast, Jonathan Welch became an idiomatic Italian Tenor, while Bernard Fitch and Suzanna Guzman mugged strongly as Valzacchi and Annina. Other well-tuned cameos were contributed by David Downing (Notary) and Kevin Bell (Police Commissioner).